Knife Making Suggestions

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Scandi Grind
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Knife Making Suggestions

#1

Post by Scandi Grind »

Here is are some questions for anybody who has experience doing knife making of any sort. I am interested in making my own fixed blade knives and am looking for some advice on good resources. There are four major questions I have:

#1
Is there any learning resources anyone can suggest? Books, videos, websites, communities?

#2
Where are good places to get tools, and does anyone have tools to suggest? I'm particularly talking about machine tools like drill presses and belt grinders, but other tool suggestions are useful too, so fire away.

#3
Where do I get knife making materials, most importantly, steel, handle materials such as wood, micarta, G-10, and guard materials such as brass and aluminum?

#4
Anybody have suggestions on heat treating? Where can you send a blade to get it heat treated? Are there any ways you would suggest doing heat treatment yourself, obviously for simple steels like high carbons that don't require complex methods?

Any input is much appreciated, and links to websites where applicable is very helpful.
"A knifeless man is a lifeless man."

-- Old Norse proverb
JRinFL
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#2

Post by JRinFL »

There are several knife maker supply online shops out there. I have not used any of them personally, but if you search you can find lots of feedback.

For machine tools, you can start looking at Grizzly Tools.
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DSH007
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#3

Post by DSH007 »

Hey Scandi - checkout usaknifemaker.com.

I personally have very little experience with knife-making, but I do tinker with my knives on occasion.. I stumbled across this site awhile back while looking for some replacement hardware. Seems to me, they have just about anything you can think of to get you started..

Good luck with it!
Rick H.

..well, that escalated quickly..
Coastal
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#4

Post by Coastal »

DSH007 wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 10:04 am
Hey Scandi - checkout usaknifemaker.com.

I personally have very little experience with knife-making, but I do tinker with my knives on occasion.. I stumbled across this site awhile back while looking for some replacement hardware. Seems to me, they have just about anything you can think of to get you started..

Good luck with it!
Wow! This is an excellent resource that will reinvigorate a few of my dead-end projects. Thanks for posting!
Scandi Grind
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#5

Post by Scandi Grind »

Yeah, thanks!
"A knifeless man is a lifeless man."

-- Old Norse proverb
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Xplorer
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#6

Post by Xplorer »

Scandi Grind wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 9:09 am
Here is are some questions for anybody who has experience doing knife making of any sort. I am interested in making my own fixed blade knives and am looking for some advice on good resources. There are four major questions I have:

#1
Is there any learning resources anyone can suggest? Books, videos, websites, communities?

#2
Where are good places to get tools, and does anyone have tools to suggest? I'm particularly talking about machine tools like drill presses and belt grinders, but other tool suggestions are useful too, so fire away.

#3
Where do I get knife making materials, most importantly, steel, handle materials such as wood, micarta, G-10, and guard materials such as brass and aluminum?

#4
Anybody have suggestions on heat treating? Where can you send a blade to get it heat treated? Are there any ways you would suggest doing heat treatment yourself, obviously for simple steels like high carbons that don't require complex methods?

Any input is much appreciated, and links to websites where applicable is very helpful.
Hi Scandi,

#1 The community of knife makers on Instagram is large and there is a lot of helpful information being shared there. Some makers post instructional videos while they work. Others may be willing to answer your direct questions. Allen Elishewitz posts some helpful videos about very "knife maker" specific stuff @elishewitz_knives. Michael Walker @michaelwalkertaos is one of my favorites. He posts some helpful videos occasionally and he has been willing to answer my questions directly when I've asked for help. There are many more, you just have to start searching.
There are some books that can help you get started. Blade Magazine sells a bunch of good instructional books. I would suggest the Bob Terzuola book is very helpful (@terzuolatactical on IG if you can get one). The "Making Knives With Bob Loveless" book is also a good place to start. In fact, I suggest anyone wanting to get into knife making would be well served by studying Bob Loveless and his methods.

#2 Finding tools for making tools is not easy. I suggest looking up "used machinery" or "used metal working tools" and see if there is a company in your area that sells used equipment. Also, check Ebay. New metal working tools are very expensive. The most important tools to start with are a drill press and a belt grinder. Variable speed is extremely helpful for all metal working applications and is always worth the extra money. A granite surfacing stone is helpful for making things flat. Eventually you'll want a mill, a lathe and as surface grinder but those usually are too expensive at first.

#3 Here's some links for finding the supplies..
For knife steel - https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/shop/p ... -materials
General knife making supplies - https://usaknifemaker.com/
General knife making supplies - https://www.texasknife.co
Grinding belts and supplies - https://trugrit.com/?main
Sheets of sandpaper - https://www.combatabrasiv
Wide range of handle materials - https://www.makermaterial
Precision parts until you can make your own - https://ticonnector.com/product-categor ... pivot-set/

For things like aluminum and brass I go to a local Industrial Metal Supply store. Check to see if there is a store like that in your area. People who build iron fences and other metal structures buy their materials and supplies in stores like this.

#4 Heat treating is not that simple even with simple steels. Lots of people ruin 1095 with bad heat treatments, for example. Heat treating is the "lifeblood" of a knife. It is the transition from shiny piece of metal to useful tool that we call a knife. I would suggest learning as much as you can about heat treating. I spent the first 3 years of knife making solely focused on learning about heat treating. Over time, I've leaned to heat treat more than 20 different steels. I benefit from that foundation every day and I am glad I spent the time up front. Still to this day I seek out any and all additional heat treating knowledge I can find.
To start you should subscribe to "knife steel nerds" on Patreon. That's where you'll find more complete, accurate and current heat treating knowledge than any other single source. You might also want to purchase Larrin's book. It's uniquely filled with heat treating knowledge for knife makers.
For doing your own heat treating you'll need a kiln that will hold 2100F with accurate temp controls. You'll also need some method for quenching (aluminum plates or oil most likely, depending on your steel). A decent kiln will cost around $1500 - $3500.
At first you'll probably want to send blades out to be heat treated. You can look for a local knife maker to help you out or you can send your blades to a heat treat shop. Here's a couple links for heat treating services..
https://www.petersheattreat.com/
https://trugrit.com/heat-treating-services/

Best of luck to you!
Chad Kelly
Last edited by Xplorer on Tue May 24, 2022 9:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
:spyder: Spyderco fan and collector since 1991. :spyder:
Father of 2, nature explorer, custom knife maker.
@ckc_knifemaker on Instagram.
Scandi Grind
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#7

Post by Scandi Grind »

Thanks Chad, appreciate it!
"A knifeless man is a lifeless man."

-- Old Norse proverb
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DSH007
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#8

Post by DSH007 »

Coastal wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 10:19 am
DSH007 wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 10:04 am
Hey Scandi - checkout usaknifemaker.com.

I personally have very little experience with knife-making, but I do tinker with my knives on occasion.. I stumbled across this site awhile back while looking for some replacement hardware. Seems to me, they have just about anything you can think of to get you started..

Good luck with it!
Wow! This is an excellent resource that will reinvigorate a few of my dead-end projects. Thanks for posting!
If a professional is also saying this is a viable resource, it must be legit.. I'm glad I didn't lead you astray! :winking-tongue
Rick H.

..well, that escalated quickly..
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Xplorer
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#9

Post by Xplorer »

DSH007 wrote:
Fri May 20, 2022 3:16 pm
...it must be legit.. I'm glad I didn't lead you astray! :winking-tongue
Here's 2 good things I can tell you and anyone reading this about USA Knifemaker.

#1 They are better than most about shipping out their orders right away (AKS is also good about this). :smlling-eyes

#2 They usually include a cool sticker with the order. :winking-tongue

Image

note - they've been out of stickers lately but a new one will be in stock soon (I asked).
:spyder: Spyderco fan and collector since 1991. :spyder:
Father of 2, nature explorer, custom knife maker.
@ckc_knifemaker on Instagram.
TomAiello
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#10

Post by TomAiello »

My favorite sticker is the 'Have a Knife Day' one. :)
dsvirsky
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#11

Post by dsvirsky »

Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop, available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc..
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Xplorer
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#12

Post by Xplorer »

I think it's important that I correct something I wrote in my initial post to this thread. Originally I said the "Making Knives With Bob Loveless" book was full of pretty pictures and wasn't very helpful. That was wrong. I edited my original post, and I think I should explain..
When I purchased that book I had been making knives for about 7 years already and it was actually the first "knife making" book I had ever purchased. When I went through it I was disappointed that there wasn't anything in it that I hadn't already learned. This left me with the impression that I wrote initially.

However, I have studied Bob Loveless thoroughly and I've built a number of "Loveless" style knives as a part of my self teaching process. I didn't read the book as a beginner. I gathered all the same information from many, many different sources and some very time consuming trial and error. As I was completing another Loveless style knife this past weekend I decided to look through Bob's book and see if there were any that looked similar to the one I just built. As I went through the book with this thread in mind I realized that if I had purchased that book when I was starting out it actually would have been immensely helpful. There's a wealth of good information in that book for anyone wanting to get started in knife making. Furthermore, for anyone wanting to learn how to make knives I would seriously recommend studying Bob Loveless's work and his methods. Bob Loveless is a legendary custom knife maker who's knives sell for insane $$ for a good reason.

The knife I just completed is my version of a "Nessmuk" style hunter in honor of the man known as the first American bushcrafter. George Washington Sears was a sportswriter for Forest and Steam magazine in the 1880s and wrote under the pen-name "Nessmuk". In his writings was a drawing of 3 tools every forest explorer and adventurer should carry. In the drawing there was a hatchet, a 2-blade slip-joint and a fixed blade. Variations of that fixed blade shape have been built by knife makers ever since, even though the only known example of the original is just the drawing. Nobody is actually sure if the knife he drew was ever built for him because the actual knife has never been found or even reported to have been seen by anyone.

Nessmuk drew his fixed blade with an antler handle (not surprisingly). I made mine with a handle in the style of a Bob Loveless knife. I didn't want to copy Bob Loveless's version of the Nessmuk (which is why I didn't refer to this book until after I was finished with the knife). I just wanted to build it with the same style and construction methods Bob would have used. As it turns out, there are only 2 Nessmuk style knives pictured in Bob's book and neither looks like mine. One has less of a rise in the spine and the other has a lot more rise than mine.

Since I was making this one with 2 historical figures in mind I thought using some authentic aged (estimated to be between 40 and 50 years old) Westinghouse Micarta would be appropriate.
Here's the completed knife...
Image
Image
Image

Here's the drawing of the 3 tools I mentioned and a drawing of George Washington Sears (Nessmuk) as well.
Image
Image

Sorry for the long story. In short..Bob Loveless's book is very good. Any beginning knife-maker would benefit from reading it.

Best regards,
Chad Kelly
:spyder: Spyderco fan and collector since 1991. :spyder:
Father of 2, nature explorer, custom knife maker.
@ckc_knifemaker on Instagram.
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VooDooChild
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#13

Post by VooDooChild »

You can find exotic wood handle material on line. My buddy got me some for Christmas, Im not sure where he got if from but I actually think it was from a woodworking supply website.

Check out Peters Heat Treat.

You can do carbon steel yourself but stainless is a whole different ball game.
"Rome's greatest contribution to mathematics was the killing of Archimedes."
Mike Blue
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#14

Post by Mike Blue »

Bob Engnath's shop catalog if you can find it. It is the best introduction to knifemaking. He passed away in 1998. Bob was unashamedly 50% of the Knifemakers Guild all by himself until he died. David Boye's Step by Step Knifemaking is good too. Might be in the library. Wayne Goddard has a lot of good books.

I spent a lot of time looking over the shoulder of a maker/heat treater, Before spending money on tools etc. Just watching. I went to several shops doing this while trying to make a blade. there are a whole bunch of folks who will recommend all sorts of stuff you have to have. Whats in your shop? Stick with that until you need the tool to be more efficient at it. rent what you can't afford yet.

There have been a lot through my shop. A few haven't even lit a fire yet.
Scandi Grind
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Re: Knife Making Suggestions

#15

Post by Scandi Grind »

No problem on the long explanation Chad! I actually appreciated it because I am in fact a Nessmuk knife fan! :smlling-eyes I have read some of Nessmuk's written work, as well as a lot from his greatest imitator, Horace Kephart.

The first and only knife book I have so far is "How To Make Knifes" by Robert Loveless and Richard Barney, which also covers the way that Bill Moran makes knives, and I have come to know that Loveless and Moran knives sell for incredible prices. I believe I read that Moran knifes start around $5,000 on average! :astonished Anyway, clearly Loveless is one of the great knifemakers to learn from so I will definitely look into the book you suggested.

Thanks to everyone else for your suggestions as well!
"A knifeless man is a lifeless man."

-- Old Norse proverb
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